Air Quality Declines As Inversion Slowly Weakens Overhead
Inversions, in which temperatures INCREASE with elevation, suppress vertical mixing, which in turn allows pollutant concentrations to increase near the surface. And with a strong inversion over western Washington and Oregon the last few days, air quality has degraded to moderate levels at several locations. To illustrate, below is a map (at 7 PM today) showing the concentrations of small particles (less than 2.5 millionths of a meter) that are capable of passing deep into your lungs. Nasty stuff. Low concentrations are green, with moderate values in yellow and orange, and red being even higher. The Puget Sound region has degraded air quality and it is even worse around Portland. Generally good in the mountains. Graphic provided by PurpleAir You can see the declining trend of air quality in Seattle with a plot of the small particle concentration during the past few days (below). A progressive upward trend in small particles. The sources of the particles include combustion from ...
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